As the United States redeploys forces to Afghanistan, and the Pakistani military moves into the country’s tribal areas, the media face enormous challenges in covering a multifaceted conflict straddling two volatile countries. Pakistani reporters cannot move freely in areas controlled by militants. International reporters in Afghanistan, at risk from kidnappers and suicide bombers, encounter daunting security challenges. And front-line reporters in both countries face pressure from all sides.

Key Statistic
20: Years that Parwez Kambakhsh would have spent in jail on an unjust charge. He was freed in August.

Deepening violence, flawed elections, rampant corruption, and faltering development provided plenty of news to cover, but the deteriorating national conditions also raised dangers for local and foreign journalists working in Afghanistan. Roadside bombs claimed the life of a Canadian reporter and injured several other international journalists. A series of kidnappings mainly targeted international reporters, but one captive Afghan journalist was killed during a British military mission that succeeded in rescuing his British-Irish colleague.

New York, March 23, 2009 -- The already murderous conditions for the press in Sri Lanka and Pakistan deteriorated further in the past year, the Committee to Protect Journalists has found in its newly updated Impunity Index, a list of countries where journalists are killed regularly and governments fail to solve the crimes. Colombia, historically one of the world’s deadliest nations for the press, improved as the rate of murders declined and prosecutors won important recent convictions.

New
York, December
18, 2008—For the sixth
consecutive year, Iraq was the deadliest country in the world for the press, the Committee to
Protect Journalists found in its end-of-year analysis. The 11 deaths recorded in
Iraq in 2008, while a sharp drop from prior years,
remained among the highest annual tolls in CPJ history.

Dear President Karzai,
News reports have described your plan to present a $50 billion, long-term development strategy to international donors in Paris on Thursday. Those reports have also noted the concerns of international donors about allegations of widespread corruption in Afghanistan.

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Dear President Karzai,
News reports have described your plan to present a $50 billion, long-term development strategy to international donors in Paris on Thursday. Those reports have also noted the concerns of international donors about allegations of widespread corruption in Afghanistan.

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New York, June 9, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists joins with the family and colleagues of Afghan journalist Abdul Samad Rohani in mourning his death, and calls on the recently appointed governor of Helmand province, Gulab Mangal, to press investigators to find his killers.

Rohani disappeared on Saturday near Lashkar Gah, Helmand’s capital. He was found dead near the city the next day, shot several times. Rohani was the Helmand reporter for the Pashto service of the BBC and also contributed to the Pajhwok Afghan news agency, the country’s largest independent news service.